HealthCare.gov goes offline briefly on deadline day

The Obamacare enrollment deadline is tonight at midnight and, unfortunately for the Obama Administration, the headline this morning is that there was another HealthCare.gov hiccup. The site was offline for nearly six hours early this morning, although it is back up and running.

The site went down at 3:20 a.m. and returned to full working order at 9 a.m. Health and Human Services officials told Politico that there was a bug that needed to be repaired. It usually undergoes maintenance regularly during off-hours, but this time, it stretched into the morning.

USA Today reports that the department said the bug was not related to the volume of visitors. The site handled 2 million visitors over the weekend.

President Obama and his administration have been making a last-minute push to drive up interest in the Affordable Care Act. The administration believes it worked, as the call center received 2.5 million calls last week alone.

Tonight is the deadline for open enrollment in 2014 and is necessary for anyone hoping to avoid a penalty. That would be paid with federal-income taxes in 2015.

Republicans have bashed Obamacare, noting that it is unpopular and claim it will only make healthcare more expensive.